Republican 'dream team' will test whether Americans still believe

Mitt Romney’s choice of Paul Ryan as his vice-presidential running mate turned what has been a rather dull and plodding election campaign into one of the most intriguing contests in memory. The November election will be ground-breaking on several fronts:

1. Voters for once will get exactly what they claim to want, a choice between two candidates with sharply differing agendas and two clear alternatives.

2. Ryan’s stark financial proposals means U.S. voters will finally be confronted with the courage of their convictions: do they really want the smaller, less intrusive government so many of them claim to? Are they willing to accept the price it would involve?

3. Similarly, voters will be tested for the depth of their faith in lower taxes as the key to national recovery. Barack Obama will raise taxes. Romney/Ryan will cut them. Either way the impact will be dramatic.

The extent of the revolution Ryan represents shouldn’t be underestimated. So mammoth is the change he’s proposing that Romney almost immediately began distancing himself from it, insisting he would set his own financial plan as president, rather than simply adopt the detailed program already set forth by his running mate. It’s a rather odd way to run a campaign and shouldn’t be taken seriously: Paul Ryan is known for only one thing, and that’s his blueprint to remake the American economy through sweeping tax and spending cuts. He wouldn’t be on the ticket for any other reason. If Romney were to be elected and not adopt the Ryan plan, he’d have betrayed the single most compelling reason anyone has to vote for him.

So if you ignore Romney’s disclaimer, voters have two very different visions to choose from. Barack Obama will stand by his faith in big government and the net benefit of large-scale spending programs, even if he has to borrow the money. His economic policy will consist of hoping conditions improve enough to produce the growth that will eventually reduce the size of the deficit, and someday, perhaps, the gargantuan national debt. There will be no radical changes to the status quo, and the long-term dangers hanging over the economy will continue to hang there undisturbed. This generation will do nothing to alleviate the appalling balance sheet it’s leaving behind as its legacy. Romney/Ryan, on the other hand, will raze the government and erect a new version on its ashes. The biggest and most popular spending programs – medicare, medicaid, social security – will shrink dramatically. They will cost less, but also deliver less. People will be left to their own devices. Americans will be urged to accept more responsibility for their own well-being. Families will be expected to care for their members with less reliance on the state.

Is that what people want? The American ethos has long been one of people devoted to making their own decisions free from meddling and intrusive government. It was the basis of the original Revolution and the country’s growth as a world power. But each new spending program has made reversion to the original dream a costlier prospect. Obamacare, the universal healthcare program introduced on a mountain of borrowed money, may have been the tipping point. Once it is firmly in place, the chances of reversing course appear all but insurmountable.

So now’s the opportunity to make the decision. Big government, or a reversion to self-reliance accompanied by cuts in programs on which millions have come to rely? The decision may define just how different the U.S. continues to be from all the other western powers that long ago threw in their lot with the big-spending nanny state. In most countries the choice is between big government and bigger government – even a professedly conservative government like Stephen Harper’s has talked about smaller government, while wracking up year after year of record spending.

It could also be a moment of truth for the enduring conservative faith in tax cuts as a remedy for whatever ails you. Ever since Ronald Reagan slashed taxes and produced a vibrant economy in their place, the demand for even greater cuts has become so predictable among “real” conservatives that many no longer seem to feel they need any other ideas at all. But years of “cuts” has the U.S. stuck in the worst recession in 80 years, and emboldened left-wingers are now openly advocating hikes. France‘s new president is committed to a big increase and Germany is hinting at increases as well. Years of experience with tax cuts has tarnished their allure: the “wealth gap” has widened dramatically in favour of the rich; study after study has shown the middle class in long-term decline; and 50% of the country has no reason to oppose federal taxes in any case, since they don’t pay any.

Paul Ryan’s prescription for the economy is big on more tax cuts, once again promising they will clear the obstructions from the arteries of the U.S. economy. Election night in November will offer a crucial opportunity for Americans to demonstrate how many still share that faith.

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